Colours Gather Strength in the Perennial Meadows Garden

In my previous post I celebrate the colour green; now others are challenging its supremacy.

Here and there shrubs now rise above my perennial meadows bringing exciting new forms and contrasts to the looser plant material that surrounds them.

Complementary plants form part of my perennial meadow planting schemes and are there to serve an number of important functions; one of these is Geranium tuberosum which covers the ground in early spring with low, finely divided foliage and then a few weeks later adds a wash of blue to the borders. It vanishes shortly after flowering, but by then it has done its job by extending the border’s season of interest. In summer this border will be an oasis of green amidst the surrounding colours of the rest of the garden. At ground level hostas and epimediums will eventually cover the surface and above them will float the flower heads of tall-growing Molinia caerulea subsp. caerulea grasses.

Euphorbia palustris makes a bold contribution and creates the perfect setting for the alliums which have seeded themselves throughout this long established border. My neighbour’s Tamarix shrub makes a short but welcome background to the composition.

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I’ve been in love with Piet Oudolf’s gardens since I came across a copy of Designing with Plants by Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury while browsing in Barnes & Noble in 1999. I’d never before seen the kinds of startlingly romantic, lush, naturalistic, absolutely stunning plantings I found in that book. I was smitten, and I haven’t gotten over […]